Thursday, May 29, 2008

Yahtzee anyone?

I recently had occasion to play ( i.e. a hangover) and was frankly shocked and delighted by the sheer dirtiness of conversation during play.

Yahtzee is an easy game. You've seen the scorecards I assume? And understand the object of play?

You see the goal is to fill out your upper half so you can get the big bonus. It's almost impossible to get a bonus if the upper half is not reasonably balanced. You can win the game without a bonus, but it's hard. But don't feel bad if your upper half is not as well filled out as your lower half. Fortunately, it's easy to overcome a bad upper half with a spectacular bottom half.

Unfortunately, it is also possible to have nothing going on in your lower half, especially if you fail to get a large straight. A small straight alone just doesn't cut it, and you can spend a lot of time and energy trying to turn small straights into large straights. It's preferable to get a large straight unexpectedly and spontaneously rather than trying futilely for it over and over again. It can be very frustrating. While a small straight is perfectly fine, they are quite commonplace and not as much a cause for celebration as the large straight.

On very rare occasions, the lack of a large straight can be overcome by getting the bonus.

1 comment:

It's actually a myth that Large Straights are better than Small Straights. I have it on good authority that small straights work just as well and nobody really pays attention to the size of your straight anyway.